Detroit Garden Works 2016 Spring Fair

Detroit Garden Works will be hosting its annual spring fair tomorrow and Sunday. We are particularly fond of that time when winter is just about over, and a new gardening season is about to begin. Spring is the puppy season of the garden. Once the landscape and garden plants break dormancy, everything grows grows so fast is difficult to keep up with it all. The trees and shrubs are leafing out, the spring flowering bulbs leap out of the ground, the hellebores come in to their own-and there are weeds everywhere. The garden wakes up one moment, and is in high gear the next. One barely knows what to look at first. Some spring moments are as brief as they are beautiful, and gardeners do not want to miss any of it. In anticipation of the spring garden on the way, we invite a diverse group of people who make a career of some aspect of gardening to bring their plants and wares to our fair. The idea is to put a group of green industry people in the same place as lots of interested gardeners, offer a little something to eat and drink, and let the fun begin.

Our building is just about 10,000 square feet, and it is chock full of new pots, tools, garden ornaments, and best of all, the first of many interesting specialty plants we carry throughout the garden season. April weather can be very uncooperative. We’ve had quite a run of cold days and very cold nights recently. There is snow on the ground this morning, for pete’s sake. We plan to launch the spring 2016 season in spite of it. We have 10,000 square feet of warm space. Our fair space in the warehouse in the back of our building has lots of new lighting, and a new all glass garage door. If you have a mind to come, we will valet park your car at no charge, and load your purchases for you. You will be shoulder to shoulder with other passionate gardeners who are keen for perennials, cut flowers and bulbs that show themselves early in the spring.

Our bunches of fresh cut pussy willow are the best I have ever seen. I wonder if the mild winter had something to do with this. Though our fall grown and cold wintered pansies are shrugging off the inclement weather, every one is covered with frost cloth for the night. Our hellebores are big and well grown plants. Our topiary plants can be enjoyed indoors until the night temperatures are warmer, and then moved outdoors for the summer.

The shop is especially beautiful this spring. This is our 20th year in business, and the pride we feel in that is evident. You’ll see. But for all of you who are too far away to visit this weekend, to follow is a collection of pictures that will help give you a sense of what we look like right now.

It has taken quite a few months to get to this moment. The shop walls got repainted. We have a fresh floor painting. We have new lighting. Every room is clean-sparkly. Every day we have something new coming in. In the distance, you can see how much light we have in the back now, courtesy of our glass overhead door.

We have big and little ideas, and appropriate the materials to go with, for gardeners of every persuasion. This sentence is pretty short. Our effort to help gardeners of every persuasion is long lived, and serious. That aside, what we have in store for the weekend is all about the pleasure that a garden can provide.

I promise there is enchantment in the air.

Even Howard has come out from under my desk to take part in what is going on.

In anticipation of our spring fair, we had two truck loads of topiary plants delivered. Our greenhouse space is packed with plants. This is my favorite part-the plants.

The shop looks absolutely enchanting. Lots of hard work has paid off in spades. Cheers to DGW from Atlanta, GA where it has been especially windy and coolish for this time of year. Not that I’m complaining!

Deborah and Rob & Crew,
Thank you for the invitation to join you again this year! I so enjoy sharing my cut flowers with everyone. Your fair is most definitely a harbinger of spring! Much love and gratitude to all of you and all the very talented growers who share their beauty.
Xx Jody

“The garden wakes up one moment, and is in high gear the next. One barely knows what to look at first. Some spring moments are as brief as they are beautiful, and gardeners do not want to miss any of it.”

Here, in northern New Jersey, we are still waiting for the cold weather to subside as we watch the new green growth pop out from the perennials and wait for the trees to leaf out. It feels like spring is taking forever to get here, but I know once it warms up and the garden really gets started, it will all happen so quickly. I really do try to enjoy every minute of it (especially the peonies) and make sure not to miss anything.

Your shop looks fabulous and I wish it was closer so I could visit. How nice it would be to walk among all that greenery (I absolutely love those lemon cypress!). Food for the soul, indeed.

The rosemary and lavender are so beautiful. Have you ever posted about how to make them work in the Detroit climate? Can they be overwintered without a greenhouse? My Iowa City climate is very similar to Detroit and I’ve never had good luck with them.

The snow can’t keep us away. Look forward to meeting with all the local venders. It is so wonderful that you bring them all together under one roof. We are so fortunate to have Garden Works as part of our community. Congratulations on 20.

Dear Deborah, Rob and Crew,
Congratulations on your 20th anniversary!
Detroit Garden Works looks beautiful, intriguing and enticing. Just as it did that early Sunday morning, many years ago, when we were heading home to Cleveland on Orchard Lake Rd. Your sign caught my eye …we had to turn around and go back. Gerry asked if I forgot something at the bed & breakfast where we had stayed. I said no, there’s something “back there …something to do with gardens”. (Perhaps DGW has a magnetic force field?)
Even though the shop was closed, I think we spent four hours with you that morning Deborah. And left with many fabulous treasures. ….the rest is history.
Thank you for DGW. Thank you for sharing your passion for, and knowledge of gardening like none other.
XOX, Silvia and Gerry

Thank you Deborah for sharing this uplifting Spring preview. From Detroit with love! An absolute gardener’s paradise. A wondrous delight. Everywhere your eye falls there’s something beautiful to behold. Reading your blogs and enjoying your beautiful photographs is like a tonic for the winter weary soul. If only Detroit Garden Works was located in the Twin Cities. A girl can dream. Best wishes for a successful Spring Fair! P.S. Howard is one lucky dog.

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About the Author

Deborah Silver is a landscape and garden designer whose firm, Deborah Silver and Co Inc, opened its doors in 1986. She opened Detroit Garden Works, a retail store devoted to fine and unusual garden ornament and specialty plants, in 1996. In 2004, she opened the Branch studio, a subsidiary of the landscape company which designs and manufactures garden ornament in a variety of media. Though her formal education is in English literature and biology, she worked as a fine artist in watercolor and pastel from 1972-1983. A job in a nursery, to help support herself as an artist in the early 80’s evolved into a career in landscape and garden design. Her landscape design and installation projects combine a thorough knowledge of horticulture with an artist’s eye for design. Her three companies provide a wide range of products and services to the serious gardener. She has been writing this journal style blog since April of 2009.